Monday, 6 June 2016
Wednesday, 25 May 2016
Music Video Evaluation
For this unit I had to research and gain knowledge on types of music video's and different music video theories, before planning, filming and then editing my own music video. I sent out a questionnaire asking people they're favourite genre of music and music video and what they like to see within music video's and my results came back saying that the majority of people like a music video with a narrative, this was great help as I was then able to create my video based around what my audience was asking for and what they would like to see. I also held a focus group asking my fellow peers for their ideas and views on what I should do for my music video. This was extremely helpful as I was able to go from having very limited ideas, to having a song and a narrative idea. The focus group was successful and this led to me developing new ideas and helped me to come up with my original idea of a narrative based video.
Originally I planned to create a narrative based 'Jake Bugg' style video based in a city setting, however when I went to film for my music video the weather was horrendous so I was unable to film. Due to this I found myself short of time so had to change my idea. I changed to filming at night and changing to a song that was led more by the music rather than that of the lyrics, because of this I was able to base the video on different colourful and psychedelic imagery instead of having a set particular narrative. I therefore feel that my ability to adapt and change ideas has been a key strength of mine.
My filming schedule for my music video did not go to plan, as I was due to start filming and in the city centre of coventry but this wasn't possible due to heavy rain, this majorly interrupted my filming schedule and even resulted in me having to change my idea for my music video. However when I eventually was able to film it went really well and I managed to aide by the schedule that I gad put in place. I went to coventry late at night a wandered the city filming lights, streets and my friend. The filming was all done in one night which gave me plenty of time to edit before my final deadline. Most of the footage is , colourful and sharp, however because I was filming at night some footage appears slightly grainy, this could have been avoided by being more aware of the camera settings I was using e.g. Aperture and ISO. It also could of been avoided by using a different lens, a lens that was more suitable for night filming.
I felt a real strength of mine throughout creating my music video was my ability to bring the footage and video to life via my quick and creative style of editing. Due to my footage being random and fairly average, I had to edit well in order to bring it to life, whether that was by layering footage, speeding footage up or slowing it down or even reversing footage. Although if I was to make another music video I would ensure that there was more depth to my footage and also ensure that I was a higher quality, as I feel this has been one of my main weaknesses throughout the course of making a music video.
Another strength of mine whilst making a music video was my organisational skills throughout the editing process of my music video, I ensured that all footage was labeled so I didn't waste time searching for particular bits of footage. I also ensured that work was kept in specific folders so I didn't get mixed up or confused and lose work.
Overall I am rather happy with the end product, as I have created a fun to watch, creative and interesting music video. If I was to make another music video I would probably pursue my original idea of making a narrative based video as I feel it would be more of a challenge for myself.
Originally I planned to create a narrative based 'Jake Bugg' style video based in a city setting, however when I went to film for my music video the weather was horrendous so I was unable to film. Due to this I found myself short of time so had to change my idea. I changed to filming at night and changing to a song that was led more by the music rather than that of the lyrics, because of this I was able to base the video on different colourful and psychedelic imagery instead of having a set particular narrative. I therefore feel that my ability to adapt and change ideas has been a key strength of mine.
My filming schedule for my music video did not go to plan, as I was due to start filming and in the city centre of coventry but this wasn't possible due to heavy rain, this majorly interrupted my filming schedule and even resulted in me having to change my idea for my music video. However when I eventually was able to film it went really well and I managed to aide by the schedule that I gad put in place. I went to coventry late at night a wandered the city filming lights, streets and my friend. The filming was all done in one night which gave me plenty of time to edit before my final deadline. Most of the footage is , colourful and sharp, however because I was filming at night some footage appears slightly grainy, this could have been avoided by being more aware of the camera settings I was using e.g. Aperture and ISO. It also could of been avoided by using a different lens, a lens that was more suitable for night filming.
I felt a real strength of mine throughout creating my music video was my ability to bring the footage and video to life via my quick and creative style of editing. Due to my footage being random and fairly average, I had to edit well in order to bring it to life, whether that was by layering footage, speeding footage up or slowing it down or even reversing footage. Although if I was to make another music video I would ensure that there was more depth to my footage and also ensure that I was a higher quality, as I feel this has been one of my main weaknesses throughout the course of making a music video.
Another strength of mine whilst making a music video was my organisational skills throughout the editing process of my music video, I ensured that all footage was labeled so I didn't waste time searching for particular bits of footage. I also ensured that work was kept in specific folders so I didn't get mixed up or confused and lose work.
Overall I am rather happy with the end product, as I have created a fun to watch, creative and interesting music video. If I was to make another music video I would probably pursue my original idea of making a narrative based video as I feel it would be more of a challenge for myself.
Friday, 13 May 2016
Effective ways to present and evaluate research methods
Before beginning production on my music video, I conducted enough research to further my understanding and to become more knowledgeable on the different codes and conventions used within music videos, and what directors of music video wish for their audience to gain from the music video. My first point of research which I conducted was taking notes in lesson from a powerpoint, this helped to give me a brief and clear understanding of music video conventions. I was also introduce to 2 theorists who specialise in music video theory, Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin. I was then able to away and research these 2 theorists via webpages and books, I was then able to transfer the information onto my blog to contribute towards my work. I was able to gain information from Andrew Goodwin's book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' and different websites including articles from the guardian, these are both very retable sources.
Although I view music videos regularly, whether that be on music channels or on you tube etc. I have always viewed them passively and have never really viewed them to try and devote meaning. By researching Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goowdin's theories I was then able to apply these theories to music videos of my choice, by doing this I was able to expand my knowledge of music videos and which conventions were used in which genre of music video, this helped in the production stage of creating my own video as I was knowledgable on music video conventions.
After conducting research over the course of 5 music videos I felt I had developed a clear and broad understanding of different codes and conventions that were used in each genre and each music video. This reach helped me to gather ideas as to what style of video I would create, however I felt I needed to conduct more primary research so I held a focus group with my fellow HNC students to listen to their ideas, by doing this it helped me to come up with more ideas and further my knowledge of music video as I was gathering more information and data from a primary source. Before the focus group took place I was certain I wanted to produce a narrative based music video but was struggling to pick a song for it, the focus group helped me to decide on Jake Bugg - Seen it all.
As well as a focus group I also produced a survey and put it up onto my blog so people were able to fill it out and I was then able to gain some results to help me with the production of my music video. The survey can be viewed by following this link https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PVHHPC. The survey helped me to gain information from my audience and therefore helped me to work out things such as which music genre I would use, what type of video I would create and where people watch music videos so I would therefore know where to upload my video to. Below I have placed screenshots of my results that I had gathered by releasing my survey.
The First question which asks "What is your favourite genre of music?" the chart below clearly shows that overall the people to fill out my survey like Rock Music the best, due to this I chose a rock song to create a music video to, this song being Jake Bugg - Seen it all. However due to problems with filming I had to change my music video idea and therefore change my song, so instead of sticking with rock I decided to change and go for my second most popular music genre which was Dance music.
Another question I asked was "What genre of music video do you view?" as the result clearly stated that amongst my audience narrative based music videos were the most popular I decide to aim to make my music video as narrative based as possible. However due to the fact I had to change my song I was unable to create a narrative based video and instead ignored my survey results and went down the route of making a video that was more psychedelic and involved creative and colourful imagery, as I felt that it went well with the song I had chose which was Jamie xx- Girl.
Another question I asked in my survey was "Where is it you mainly view music videos?". For this question there was a very obvious popular answer amongst my audience which was that they viewed music videos the most on YouTube. Therefore when I had completed my music video I uploaded it to YouTube, this made sense to me because it is where the majority of my audience view music videos and so therefore would be able to view mine on there too.
Conclusion
Overall throughout the course of this study, quantitive research methods such as questionnaires did not fair well in bringing me results which were both of good quality and reliable. The aim over this research project was to gain inspiration and find ways of being more creative for when I started making my music video, however by just asking questions, it didn't really give me any solid ideas or enable me to become more creating with my ideas. One thing that the questionnaire was good for however was being able to tell me what my audiences favourite genre was, and helped me to pick the song which was used within my music video. My questionnaire also helped me to decide the best place for my video to be uploaded and which genre of music video was most popular amongst my audience, making it easier to pick what style of video I created. I felt that qualitative research methods such as focus groups were one of the most successful ways of gathering research and ideas, this was due to me being able to talk freely and openly to a range of people in a room and constantly bounce new and inventive ideas off of one another. It also helped me to gather primary information in the form of student opinions and ideas that really did go on to help produce my music video. I also felt that by studying music video theorists such as carol vernallis and Andrew Goodwin and applying their theories to music videos helped further my understanding of music videos in general. I used books and internet search engines to help myself gain a strong understanding of these theories. It is evident throughout my research that internet sources have been very valuable to the improvement of my overall knowledge throughout the music video production, however it needs to be noted that not all sources are reliable, as some can be written and changed by anybody e.g. Wikipedia and SlideShare. To ensure sources are correct, check them against retable sources such as a book or a webpage such as the guardian or a university page.
Improvements to be made
- Be sure to record audio and possibly film from focus groups in order to back up my results
- Increase the amount of questions and change the style of questions to help me gain more ideas about my actual video production
- Include a higher amount of students in the focus group in order to increase the quantity and the quality of ideas and to gain more results to help with video production
After conducting research over the course of 5 music videos I felt I had developed a clear and broad understanding of different codes and conventions that were used in each genre and each music video. This reach helped me to gather ideas as to what style of video I would create, however I felt I needed to conduct more primary research so I held a focus group with my fellow HNC students to listen to their ideas, by doing this it helped me to come up with more ideas and further my knowledge of music video as I was gathering more information and data from a primary source. Before the focus group took place I was certain I wanted to produce a narrative based music video but was struggling to pick a song for it, the focus group helped me to decide on Jake Bugg - Seen it all.
As well as a focus group I also produced a survey and put it up onto my blog so people were able to fill it out and I was then able to gain some results to help me with the production of my music video. The survey can be viewed by following this link https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PVHHPC. The survey helped me to gain information from my audience and therefore helped me to work out things such as which music genre I would use, what type of video I would create and where people watch music videos so I would therefore know where to upload my video to. Below I have placed screenshots of my results that I had gathered by releasing my survey.
Another question I asked was "What genre of music video do you view?" as the result clearly stated that amongst my audience narrative based music videos were the most popular I decide to aim to make my music video as narrative based as possible. However due to the fact I had to change my song I was unable to create a narrative based video and instead ignored my survey results and went down the route of making a video that was more psychedelic and involved creative and colourful imagery, as I felt that it went well with the song I had chose which was Jamie xx- Girl.Conclusion
Overall throughout the course of this study, quantitive research methods such as questionnaires did not fair well in bringing me results which were both of good quality and reliable. The aim over this research project was to gain inspiration and find ways of being more creative for when I started making my music video, however by just asking questions, it didn't really give me any solid ideas or enable me to become more creating with my ideas. One thing that the questionnaire was good for however was being able to tell me what my audiences favourite genre was, and helped me to pick the song which was used within my music video. My questionnaire also helped me to decide the best place for my video to be uploaded and which genre of music video was most popular amongst my audience, making it easier to pick what style of video I created. I felt that qualitative research methods such as focus groups were one of the most successful ways of gathering research and ideas, this was due to me being able to talk freely and openly to a range of people in a room and constantly bounce new and inventive ideas off of one another. It also helped me to gather primary information in the form of student opinions and ideas that really did go on to help produce my music video. I also felt that by studying music video theorists such as carol vernallis and Andrew Goodwin and applying their theories to music videos helped further my understanding of music videos in general. I used books and internet search engines to help myself gain a strong understanding of these theories. It is evident throughout my research that internet sources have been very valuable to the improvement of my overall knowledge throughout the music video production, however it needs to be noted that not all sources are reliable, as some can be written and changed by anybody e.g. Wikipedia and SlideShare. To ensure sources are correct, check them against retable sources such as a book or a webpage such as the guardian or a university page.
Improvements to be made
- Be sure to record audio and possibly film from focus groups in order to back up my results
- Increase the amount of questions and change the style of questions to help me gain more ideas about my actual video production
- Include a higher amount of students in the focus group in order to increase the quantity and the quality of ideas and to gain more results to help with video production
Thursday, 12 May 2016
Changes to Music Video
Due to the recent weather being incredibly wet and rainy I have decided to change the overall idea of my music video. Because of the weather it has interrupted my shooting schedule meaning I shall not have enough time to shoot a narrative based, social realist video. Although the location remains the same, which is the city streets, the video will now be mostly shot at night and the song will be changed to a track that is more focused o the music rather than that of the lyrics.
Monday, 9 May 2016
Applying Lacan to Film
Lacan's theory of lack can be applied to this particular scene in whiplash, we see the protagonist wants to achieve his goal so much that he becomes obsessed and takes up repetitive practice in order to achieve his goal of being a perfect drummer. We see this when close ups of the drummers face and hands whilst playing the drums, quite literally producing blood sweat and tears. Also in this scene we see the camera tracking along the drums, this helps to promote the high speed intensity of the drumming and the speed in which he is playing at, by doing this it helps to show his determination and how much he wants to succeed. We also see how much the protagonist wants to succeed and meet the demands of his mentor when we see him smashing symbols and throwing equipment about. As the tension in the scene builds this is shown via the use of diegetic sound, the tension continues building until the diegetic sound stops, this helps for us to go inside the mind of the rummer and feel the intensity of the drumming.
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